I’m Over Over-consumption | Collage week 19
True happiness flows from the possession of wisdom and virtue and not from the possession of external goods.
— Aristotle
I am still thinking of over-consumption and my own relationship with things. I might be stuck in a loop, but I think many of us are. We want new and shiny things, but we know it’s not a great idea to purchase more stuff. We have enough. We had enough already as kids, and few of those clothes, toys and furniture even exists in the world anymore. Where are the hundred of softies and plastic toys of your childhood now? Burried at a dumping site for trash, under tons of earth? Burned and destroyed for ever? As are many of the toys you’ve bought for the kids in your life. It’s just a lot, and the more we can find other ways than shopping to feel happy and satisfied the better. Maybe photography, creating collages from recycled materials and thinking about the items you bring home is one way? It is for me.
I am processing through my art practice.
This blog post contains seven collage artworks made this year, as I continue creating in my series “365 collages in 2025”. They remind me of fast fashion, over-consumption, textile recycling and how we sometimes throw away a piece of clothing that has a stain we can’t be bothered to wash out… That’s why I named the blog post “I’m Over Over-Consumption” and each collage has a title that has something to do with that thought. Enjoy.
Not what you possess but what you do with what you have, determines your true worth.
— Thomas Carlyle
We must waste less. We must do more for ourselves and for each other. It is either that or continue merely to think and talk about changes that we are inviting catastrophe to make. The great obstacle is simply this: the conviction that we cannot change because we are dependant on what is wrong. But that is the addict’s excuse, and we know that it will not do.
—Wendell Berry
Over-consumption is a cancer eating away at our spiritual vitals. It distances us from the great masses of broken bleeding humanity. It converts us into materialists. We become less able to ask the moral questions.
— Richard J. Foster
We must alert and organise the world’s people to pressure world leaders to take specific steps to solve the two root causes of our environmental crises – exploding population growth and wasteful consumption of irreplaceable resources. Overconsumption and overpopulation underlie every environmental problem we face today.
— Jacques Yves Cousteau
Thank you so much for clicking over, taking a look and leaving me a comment below telling me which of these collages you like best – and why you like it.
Please also check out week 19 2013 and week 19 2018 – Looking back & moving forward.
About this project: I am making one collage for each day of the year in 2025 and blogging seven at a time each week here. I have created 365 artworks in a year thrice before so I am hopeful that I can do it again. I’d love to know which of these you like best – and why you like it. Thanks for helping me finish this by cheering me on. I appreciate you being here.
❤
365 collages in 2025 | previously w. 18 | this is w. 19 | next up w. 20
All art created by hand by iHanna. Copyright Hanna Andersson. All rights reserved. AI FUCK OF
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These are lovely, Hanna! Fast fashion has been my pet peeve lately. Given that I have twin soon-to-be 22-year-old daughters, more of that than I’d care for arrives at my doorstep from their online ordering. This past weekend, one of my daughters asked me to go shopping with her for a new dress. I modeled for several years in my younger days and learned through that experience what works for my body shape, so I tried to teach my daughter those things. She’s built exactly like I am! She was very frustrated at first as she kept wanting to go back to her same old selections. But when she finally opened up to me teaching her more about body types and what styles would look best on her, I took her out of the Juniors section and upstairs to the Misses section! Her response “But it’s so expensive up there!” and I explained that’s because the clothes are made better and made to last, unlike the trendy stuff in the Juniors section. She didn’t want to try anything on the first day, but we headed out again the second day and I asked her to trust me and let me pick out something for me. When she tried on what I picked out, she absolutely loved it! Was it more expensive that what she’d usually pick? Yes, but it’s a classic shape that she can wear for a very long time!
These are beautiful! I like Old-fashioned fashion because of all the pretty textiles and textures. Is the lace real? Or a photo of lace? I have incorporated fabrics and trimmings into collages, and I love how that looks and feels. It’s nice to use parts of older items rather than buying new things.
No real lace used this time, but I love cutting out photos of textiles and other textures to use in my collagework. I love the look too but prefer to keep my collages as flat as possible.
Love this collection! And totally agree with the sentiment; it can be easy to fall into the trap of “one more supply will make my art better” “one more shirt will make me love my wardrobe” “one more shiny thing from instagram”… and it’s all just so tiring.
Well done on half a year of daily collages and weekly posts also!
Thanks Rachel, appreciate it.